My Life with God

By Janet Nigro Post

This book describes quite a few happenings throughout my life with my family and my companionship with God. From my youth of learning the lessons my mother taught me about God to knowing God today, I have also learned so much from many saints, clergy, and religious and inspirational people who kept me close to Him. What I have learned throughout the years, I want to share to anyone, and it is how God connects with us if we are willing to listen to Him. With our busy lives today, it seems harder to hear God than in the time of Christ because they didn't have all the inventions we have today (TVs and technology) that keep us distracted from God, let alone our jobs and families. I found out that what's really more important is keeping God first over anything else and that this message will bring many hearts closer to God to lead the life He wants us to live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098047269

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My Life with God

Janet A. Nigro Post

Copyright © 2020 by Janet A. Nigro Post

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Growing Up in the Catholic Faith

The Saint’s Intercessions

Jesus’ Mother, Mary and the Saints

Inspirations from Inside Our Churches

Hearing God in Our Time

The True Choices

Remembering God’s Teachings

Asking Forgiveness

Coming Closer to God

My Dream of Mary

Praying with and through Mary

God’s Will for us to follow His Ways

The Importance of Prayers

The Love of our Families and Faith

Forgiveness and Humility

God’s Unconditional Love

My Parents’ Remarkable Love

Lessons Learned from our Powerful God

Listen to the Holy Spirit

Our Houses of God on Earth

Chapter 1

Growing Up in the Catholic Faith

I was the fifth born in my family of seven children. I was born in the spring of the year 1948. My mother and father were Catholic, so all of us children were raised Catholic. My mother was very religious and taught us all at an early age how to pray. She wanted very much to have all of us kids attend a Catholic elementary school, but unfortunately, we could not afford it while in our younger years. But she did what she could to have most of us attend the Catholic high schools. Although my father was not very religious, that didn’t stop my mother from teaching us as much as she could about the faith. I remember having to say our prayers every night before bed and learning the Rosary as we got older. My mother would have us children sit in our living room, and we would all pray the Rosary together almost every week—at least once a week. Unfortunately, as years went by and we got older, it got harder for my mother to encourage us children the importance of the Rosary; and that custom faded over time. Apparently, her teaching alone wasn’t enough for the real understanding we needed for the Rosary, and I sincerely pray that, that frame of mind changes for the families today. I myself did not understand too much about the significance of the Rosary then; and of course, at my very young age of seven or so, as well as most children that young, have a hard time understanding anything about religion. But when I received my First Communion and the catechism classes that my mother had sent us to later on, I got to understand more. I’m still learning more about the Rosary to this day. I have to thank my mother most of all for teaching and encouraging me continually to learn more about our faith, as that did indeed lead me closer and closer to God throughout my life.

As we all grew older, we learned love in our family; and despite our almost poverty level of living, our parents kept us in a happy home. The older I got in my early teens, the more curious I got to want to find out more about God and religion. But I didn’t know how to get the information or even how to read and understand our Bible. I had opened a Bible once or twice, but reading it was difficult for me to understand, and I got discouraged at reading it anymore. But at night, while lying in bed, I would think about God and how I could get to know more about Him. It seemed the more I thought about God, the more often answers would come to mind, or some kind of encouragement would inspire me as if God Himself was allowing me to open my mind and hear Him in my own way. Things would start to make sense. Moreover, I felt that I didn’t have to question anything that did inspire me. I remember thinking of many things to ask God like what heaven is and where it is, or is there really a hell. Of course, I did not resolve those answers right away, but that did not discourage me from giving up on my strong will to connect with God. I felt a sense of His presence near me, even though I might not have gotten the answers I looked for. I was fortunate to understand, in some way, some of these questions later in my life. I guess my determination to talk to God to get answers was my aspiration.

As I grew into my teens, I was in the surroundings of priests and nuns in my high school years, and I thought a lot about all that they must know that I would like to know. So now I thought I should join the convent so I could learn as much as I wanted about God. But with my father not being a religious man, I thought it would make him upset with me to even bring up such a thought. And we couldn’t afford it anyway…or so I thought. My mother would have been ecstatic to know I wanted to pursue becoming a nun because she would’ve been proud to have a daughter in the religious order. But I didn’t want to create friction between her and my father, so I let it go and didn’t think about asking my folks. But still, I couldn’t stop thinking about God. The more I thought about God, the more I wanted to become a nun in my Catholic faith. I thought that was the only way I could learn more. I was wrong. I found out later in life that there were other ways to know God other than reading the Bible, but of course, that is one of the better ways. There is always the Mass and the priests’ explanations on the happenings and meanings from the Gospels, and our churches also provide many different pamphlets for anyone interested in reading about information on saints’ lives and their history too or other happenings in Christ’s life. I would think about God almost every day, and I wanted my mind and heart to open up to His inspiration. I remember my teachers and my mother telling me that God gives us inspiration and He wants us to know all about Him and He knows we are willing to learn. He will lead us to Him, and now I know what He meant when He said, Come, follow Me!

Years have gone by, and for some reason, I’m to the point now where I not only want to think about God. But I yearn to think about Him and heaven and Mary, His beautiful Mother, and all the angels and saints. I want to keep learning more, but it isn’t actually for some reason I’m finding out. The reason really is that God yearns to talk to me and reveal Himself to me because He wants to communicate to all of us. I understood that later. And now I do believe that the more anyone thinks about God, the more we’ll want to know Him, and He will provide us the answers we want to understand. He will do that if we just think of Him. Thinking about God opens our minds to a lot of information and, believe it or not, answers too. He will reveal many things to us so instantly that we don’t have to think twice about them or question His truth. And now when I lie in bed in a quiet atmosphere and think about God, I know He will fill my mind with knowledge that I would never know on my own. He will give us the path to lead us to the answers about Him.

If there is a way, I can explain how God communicates with us for anyone to understand. I believe the best way that I know of is that we must have an open mind to let Him into our conscience. If we listen carefully enough, God will enter into our minds through thought, and He will even so much as give us multiple answers in our minds. At the same time, we will understand Him, and it will be clear to us. We can truly absorb the knowledge instantly of the many answers to many questions that we may have. Of course, we all know God does not talk to us in sentences like we communicate with each other. We hear Him through our conscience. We, on the other hand, normally read or say a sentence word for word to obtain the meaning set across to us, but His sentences enter our minds all at once as if the sentence is all one word and it will be absorbed instantly. We can recognize the answers He gives us in our minds, similar to a speed reader. That’s how quick God relays His messages to us. Because He is God, He is capable of that thought processing in us, and we can comprehend this communication without confusion. Scientists speak of the speed of sound or the speed of light. We can think instantly and be aware of the speed of thought through God.

I have experienced thinking in silence countless things God can reveal to me all at once without getting confused. When we concentrate in silence, and I’m sure many are aware of this too, we can think of many things instantly because our brains were created as very complex. We all have these capabilities, and even the mentally challenged can be considered having these abilities also. We know the human brain can control rapid and multiple thoughts very quickly. If we could speak as fast as our thoughts, we wouldn’t have to speak one word at a time, and communicating would still make sense. Of course, our mouths cannot speak but one word at a time, and we are not aware of how to communicate to each other in any other way but through speech. For example, we can think of one thing and be reading at the same time and, in fact, comprehend both because our brains are so intricate. So when God speaks to us through thought, it is fast and clearly comprehensive. Have you ever thought of a whole sentence or idea in your head but then spoke to another person of your idea? If you notice, the complete idea is in your head instantaneously, but you can only speak it out to someone one word at a time. God does not have to speak one word at a time to us. He gives us the whole thought all at once. That is the thought processing that God gives to us in our minds.

We have to recognize and really think of God’s ability to do this. He is the highest, supreme being of all, and His ability to communicate to us through thoughts like that can give us a little more understanding of His magnitude. But because He can create anything from nothing, it is yet another reminder of His power. It is not easy for us to understand. Even so much as to imagine God can literally be everywhere at once is, to everyone on earth, impossible beyond belief. But He can! We can literally imagine him taking care of each and every one of us and our own personal needs at the same time, plus attending to all of the animals and living things also. That is so unimaginable for our limited minds. He walks on water, He brings the dead back to life, He heals the sick instantly, and on and on and on. God has the ability to fill our minds with more than one answer at a time and still makes us understand what He reveals to us. He wants us to know everything about Him and His power and greatness, along with His tremendous, infinite, and precious love.

Chapter 2

The Saint’s Intercessions

Because of our frail humanity and weaknesses, we are always suffering in some way or another at some point in our daily lives. A few years ago, I learned from our clergy and priests’ teachings that we can pray to saints for help in our daily needs. I learned that praying to specific saints merits some relief of our suffering because God hears these prayers through their intercession for us. He also knows our sincerity to want and ask for His healing. If God sees fit, He will grant us healing. Saints are with God, and the saints pass on our prayer requests to Him. They know our pain and suffering, and they pray for us to God for our benefit. Also, I know that we, as sinners, are not worthy enough to pray to God directly because, of course, He is almighty. His greatness is the highest of majesty. Since God is all perfect and is never with sin, we, as sinners, should not feel deserving enough to implore ourselves to God. We should pray to saints and Mary to intercede for us. John the Baptist said, I am not worthy enough to untie His sandals. Because we are all so sinful, we should not consider ourselves worthy enough to request anything from God. But He loves us so much anyway, and He wants us to come to Him with our iniquities and suffering because He wants us to acknowledge that He alone can comfort and heal us.

We may not realize how much we sin, but we are all with sin in some way or another all the time in our lives. Saints do pray for us if we ask them to, and they help us in many ways. It was not long after knowing this that I began to pray for my special intentions and believe in the saints’ and Mary’s intercessions in that they will pray for us to our Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy on us and grant us the help we need. And I was blessed with some kind of comfort in one way or another by their help. I started to recognize the blessings I received from God through the saints and Blessed Mary, and I wanted to start thanking Him because I knew I should. I received a job offer that I never imagined coming up, and I realized the many encounters I experienced throughout my life that I thought I would never endure. But I did. Also, I prayed for my children every day since the day they were born that God would always watch over them. I prayed faithfully for their safety as they grew from childhood and if they experienced hard times at school and all the way to their encounters of conflict overseas in their duties in the service. And I will never stop praying for them and their families.

My older son, Charlie, went to Bosnia for a few months and also to Japan for a few weeks and then to Iraq and served a ten-month-or-so deployment with his army unit. I prayed to numerous saints every day for his protection and the others in his unit while they were over there. And I prayed for those that caused war that Jesus would calm their hearts with peace. I learned of a prayer